Crocodile’s potential Conqueror’s Haki reveal in the Final War:

Crocodile’s potential Conqueror’s Haki reveal in the Final War:

I came up with this theory after watching Morj’s video on the God’s Knights’ opponents in the Final War, where he listed Crocodile among the possible relevant secondary characters who could be given a God’s Knight matchup, given his prominent role as one of the heads of Cross Guild and his established long-time hatred of the World Government.

That idea sounded cool in my head, but the main obstacle to it happening is the fact that the only weakness of the God’s Knights’ regeneration/immortality, as established so far in Elbaf, is Conqueror’s Haki.

Chapter referenceChapter 1170 · page 6Scopper Gaban talks about the weakness of the God’s Knights

As far as we know, Crocodile lacks this specific power and does not seem to use any kind of Haki in general.

However, a scenario then came to my mind of how a possible Crocodile vs. God’s Knight fight might play out during the Final War in a way that makes a lot of things work out, and I wanted to share it here.

Basically, the scenario revolves around speculating that, during the Final War, Crocodile and most of the pirates will be fighting alongside the Revolutionary Army against the World Government. Therefore, it is quite possible that Crocodile could be fighting his God’s Knight opponent near or even alongside Emporio Ivankov, who we know from Chapter 540, during the Impel Down arc, is someone who is keeping a deep secret about Crocodile.

Chapter referenceChapter 540 · page 14Ivankov interacts with Crocodile in Impel Down and talks about his “weakness”

Many fans speculate that this secret is the idea that Crocodile was born a woman and asked Ivankov to transform him into a man at some point during his career as a pirate, especially considering Ivankov’s gender-altering powers through the Hormone-Hormone Fruit, which had already been introduced in the chapters leading up to the revelation of Crocodile’s secret.

The speculation, then, is that throughout the fight, Crocodile and Ivankov would be losing ground against the God’s Knight because they would be unable to overcome his regeneration and immortality. However, after discovering that the God’s Knight’s weakness is Conqueror’s Haki, Crocodile would reluctantly make an exception to his usual conditions: that they must be isolated, with no witnesses, and that Ivankov must transform him back into a man immediately after the fight.

Crocodile would then unleash his Conqueror’s Haki, reverting to his original female form in the process, and use Advanced Conqueror’s Haki to deal permanent damage to the God’s Knight and ultimately defeat or kill him. Once the fight was over, Ivankov would keep his promise and transform Crocodile back into a man.

This would also explain why Crocodile has never demonstrated not only Conqueror’s Haki, but any kind of Haki at all throughout the manga so far. As we saw with Trafalgar Law in Chapter 1063, during his battle against the Blackbeard Pirates, powerful enough Haki can apparently negate the effects of a Devil Fruit. In that chapter, Law releases his Haki to reverse the effects of Doc Q’s Disease-Disease Fruit, which had caused a gender-swapping disease that transformed Law and his crew into women before they returned to their original male forms through the use of Haki.

Chapter referenceChapter 1063 · page 11Law using his Haki to negate the effects of Doc Q’s devil fruit powers

Interestingly, this is almost exactly the same situation I am imagining for Crocodile. This could imply that Crocodile has consciously avoided using Haki in his fights, even when doing so would put him at a disadvantage, because he knows that using Haki would negate the effects of the gender transformation Ivankov gave him through the powers of the Hormone-Hormone Fruit, causing him to revert to his original female body—a body he is presumably uncomfortable with.